Attention all would-be storytellers: NaNoWriMo begins in just one month. Don’t be caught unprepared. What’s NaNoWriMo, you ask? Why, it’s National Novel Writing Month, of course. Granted, if you feel so inclined, you may begin writing whenever you want. However, as I understand it, that’d be cheating.
National Novel Writing Month—which, oddly enough, is no more difficult to spell out in its entirety than the portmanteau that requires hitting the shift key four times—has been going on every November for just over a decade.
A literary awareness nonprofit group runs the site, and they challenge anyone who wants to participate to write a 50,000-word story in 30 days (just under 1700 words per day). This month of “awareness” promotes disciple and accountability, with writers encouraging each other along the way, reporting how many words they’re up to, etc.
The goal for participants is volume only. Editing is discouraged but not forbidden (a popular motto is "quantity over quality"). The idea is to just get the words from your mind onto the page because, as many writers can attest, the hardest part about tackling a long story is being diligent enough to get the story down on paper to begin with. What you do with the novel once NaNoWriMo is over is up to the writer. Anyone who hits the 50,000-word threshold “wins” the contest...which, technically, I don't think qualifies it as a "contest" at all.
It’s been said that everyone has one story in them worth telling. If you’ve ever been tempted to see for yourself, I encourage you to try, starting November 1. You'll have an army of other writers supporting you along the way. I won’t be participating this year, simply because I know I’ve got too much going on to actually devote the time necessary.
After all, I can’t even blog every day for a month...
Eh?
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